


life's too short

by sophieewrites



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien salt, Alya Salt, Canon Divergence, F/M, Lila salt, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, bad bitch marinette dupain cheng, chat salt, i cba to add more, miraculous changes, so much salt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:34:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23512435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophieewrites/pseuds/sophieewrites
Summary: Everything was getting too much for Marinette when she was last at school, with Lila's lies stacking up and her friends' distrust getting on her last nerve. So, she took the summer off.Now she's back, with a new attitude and a new ally in Adrien's cousin Felix.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Félix
Comments: 37
Kudos: 644





	1. guess who's back?

**Author's Note:**

> heyy everybodyy-- (writer makes awkward entrance after 3 months)
> 
> so ik i have been extrEMely flaky with updates, but with the current sich [ stay safe by the way! ] i have a bunch of time on my hands.
> 
> i am starting a new fic as a kinda refresh- as for my other fics, lemme know if you acc want updates for them. i sadly stopped watching miraculous halfway through season three, but can still finish the stories if yall want it! x

Lila flounced into Miss Bustier's classroom on the first day of school. She was greeted by smiles, waves and even gifts from her peers as tokens of their summer travels. She offered them syrupy sweet words and perfect grins, before taking her seat across from Alya and Nino in the front row of the room. They were all 16 now, and the class had now gotten well and truly adjusted to revolving around the sun that was known as Lila Rossi.

Their class representative, who had replaced their previous one. Lila said, not yet two days from Marinette's premature departure, that she felt so bad for the girl. She wanted her legacy to be continued, despite their differences, and felt honoured to take her place. Of course this was accepted instantly by her classmates, and soon enough she filled the holes in all their lives. She listened to Rose perform for Kitty Section, watched Netflix and had sleepovers with Alya, listened to Nino's music and cosied up to Adrien.

Soon enough, it was as if the bakers' daughter hadn't existed.

She smiled at the stragglers as they entered the room, and Miss Bustier took her position at the front of the class.

"Good morning students and welcome back," she smiled warmly, "I trust you all had brilliant summers."

"None as good as Lila's, Miss!" Kim chirped up and the class buzzed in agreement.

Lila batted an arm playfully, this was too easy.

"Well, Miss Bustier, I didn't want to sound boastful... But I did have a gorgeous holiday at my Italian villa on the south coast. You should have seen Prince Ali's face when I swam across the entire Mediterranean... But, oops- I've said too much," she giggled and the class turned to each other in awe. In actual fact, her mother had gone into meetings for the entire six weeks, so she'd spent most of it editing her own wiki page. But no one needed to know that.

"It sounds lovely, Lila," the teacher smiled, but her demeanour changed as she glanced out into the courtyard. The students turned to see Principle Damocles giving Miss Bustier a nod, before walking back to his office. 

"Now, students," the teacher began, "We will be having a new student joining our class this year."

"To replace Marinette?" Alix piped up, feeling a little defeated. If anything, Alix had been one of a tiny percentile to actually have believed Marinette and felt bad for the girl, and felt cowardly for not standing up and saying anything.

"Good," Alya muttered, sharing a glance with Adrien.

"No... Marinette never actually left this school, she just took an early leave under her own circumstances," Miss Bustier explained, earning a few tuts from the class, "But she and the new student will be joining our classroom."

"I can't believe that she'd dare to show her face here again," Rose huffed, "Especially after the way she treated Lila. It was despicable!"

"Definitely," Max conceded, "Her behaviour was most discourteous."

"Amen to that!"

"Yeah Miss, what the hell?"

"Like I said," Rose carried on, "You can't do that to Lila!"

"Class please," the teacher chided softly, "The issue has been buried. Marinette has to return to school at some point."

Separately, Lila was having her own quiet turmoil. Marinette was coming back? She smirked softly to herself; as if she'd have anything to worry about now. In fact, this was perfect. Bring Marinette back so she can see how much her classmates hate her and how she had essentially replaced her existence? Rub some salt in the wound and take the new student in along with her existing minions? Perfect.

Lila stood dramatically and huffed a sigh, before looking towards her class and teacher,

"Listen everybody, i-it's okay. I honestly know in my heart of hearts that Marinette is not an evil person. I think we should give her a chance to learn from her mistakes," Lila offered sweetly. The class awed, and Miss Bustier nodded.

"Okay class," the teacher said, "Here they come.

The class craned their necks to see the two students coming. But something was off,

"Miss Bustier," Alya questioned, "There are two new students?"

"No... At least, there shouldn't be," Miss Bustier frowned, walking out of the door way to better see the students.

The whole class watched, as two figures stalked towards the room. On the left, walked a tall, well-built guy with lightly tanned skin and luscious blonde hair. It piled across his head, leaving the sides shaved; revealing stark green eyes beneath where his hair drooped. He was wearing a black v-neck and ripped jeans, topped with a leather jacket and a black backpack slung lazily over his shoulder. He was extremely good looking, stomping across the courtyard. He was a sharp smirk tugging at one side of his mouth, revealing a glowing set of white teeth.

"Felix?" Adrien exclaimed, hopping up from his seat. Why wouldn't his father have mentioned something this big?

"As in your cousin Felix?" Nino asked, moving to stand behind him.

"And who's that?" Mylene asked, and their eyes bulged at the sight of the girl next to him.

She was at least a foot shorter than him, pale skin contrasting from her choppy, raven bob. Cartilage piercings crept up her ear lobes, and her blue eyes matched the intensity of their shine. She was wearing a black spaghetti strap tank top and a red tartan skirt, paired with long black socks. She, unlike the boy beside her, seemed disgusted to be coming into class. The pair stopped a few feet from the door, and the boy grabbed the girl's shoulder to stop her from going any further,

"It's not too late to back out, you know," Felix said, glancing down at her.

The girl shrugged, "It's not like I have a choice now," eventually letting a half smile form on her lips.

"Good, now come on," he slung his arm around her shoulder and they trudged towards the door.

They stepped into the room, to be met with surprised faces and gaping mouths. Shell shocked, they took in their new and old classmate. 

The girls rocked back and forward on her heels in the silence, and looked towards the blonde, "Now what?"

Felix gestured towards the teacher who spoke up, "Class, I'd like you to meet Felix Agreste, or as some of you may have known, Adrien's cousin."

The class seemed too baffled to speak, except for Lila who sprang forward to his side, a clear agenda on her mind.

"It is so nice to finally meet you Felix," she gushed, "Adrien has often recounted how much he loves his cousin, so I'm glad you're here! I could be your friend and maybe show you around later?" Lila beamed right at him, ignoring the girl at his side.

Felix smiled lazily, "I don't know. I kind of brought me own pocket sized tour guide with me, thanks."

Lila's smile faltered and the girl beside Felix sighed,

"Okay ,pocket sized? Really?" she asked, deadpanning as Felix smirked at her and bit the side of his tongue,

"You volunteered."

The girl rolled her eyes and turned back to the class, in particular Lila who was standing in front of her.

"Aren't you going to welcome me back?" the girl smiled, eye lids low as came up close to the other girl, "Oh wait, my mistake."

The girl stepped back, turning to look at her class teacher, "It's good to see you again, Miss. I see my term as class representative is already over. You chose an honest and excellent replacement."

Everyone stared at her. No obvious sarcasm to her words, no anger or sadness. Just a lazy smile.

"I, uhm-" the teacher swallowed and nodded, "Welcome back Marinette."

The girl nodded to her class mates with the same content smirk, "I trust my seat in the back is still available. That was really thoughtful of you all."

She walked up to her seat, tossing her bag across the bench and lent back in her place. Everyone's eyes watched her, mainly in confusion. Some were in disgust, like Adrien and Alya who watched in annoyed disappointment from the first row. She shot them a bright smile and a wink, silencing both their expressions.

"Right, Felix, you go and sit next to Marinette. I'm sure it will be nice for you to both readjust together," Bustier collected herself. Felix gave her an exaggerated nod and a smile, before strolling towards the back. Lila panicked, springing to raise her hand.

"Yes Lila?" the teacher asked.

"Miss Bustier, if I may, shouldn't Felix sit next to me? As class representative I think I would be perfect to show Felix the ropes and help him feel welcome." She knew she was pushing, even for her, but she was unsure of Felix's connection to Marinette and wanted to do everything to ensure it wouldn't stop her from attaching herself to the boy. He was attractive, even more so than Adrien. Marinette, she had to admit, had changed too. She looked older, more intimidating. She needed to work fast.

"Felix?" Miss Bustier asked.

Felix cocked his head at the Italian girl, turning back to the other girl at the back. The latter shrugged, and Felix raised his eyebrows at her. Marinette gave him a look to say 'it's up to you.'

"Go ahead Felix," Marinette smiled warmly, "Lila was always such a kind, welcoming peer to me when I was here."

The entire class stared at the girl as if she had had a brain transplant. What was she playing at? Although she was obviously being sarcastic, the genuine sweetness to her smile made her ex-friends question her words. Felix, on the other hand, just shrugged, before dumping himself and his belongings next to Lila. The girl made sure to snap out of her confusion to beam coyly at Felix, before sneaking a glance at Marinette while the teacher settled them into their courses. Marinette simply laced her fingers, sitting forward, resting on her elbows and smiled contentedly. 

Lila quickly turned back, catching the uncertain glance that Alya and Adrien were giving her. Maybe she'd have to talk to Marinette later and see what she was up to.

The hour crawled by uneventfully, with the classmates chatting and discussing their summers in between their work. Bustier had been generous in allowing them to have the first lesson to settle, but the return of the bluenette had left everyone even more shaken up.

"Can you believe her?!" Alya exclaimed, walking ahead of Lila, Adrien and Nino in their now usual clique. Lila just frowned and Adrien sighed,

"I can't believe she knows my cousin. This is all really strange," he muttered, glancing over to the pair. They looked content enough. Taking a better look at Marinette showed that she was almost entirely different from how she'd been before. The last time they had seen the girl was when she was stony faced, shuffling around school alone without any regard of their presence. Prior to that, she'd tried her hardest to expose Lila. It resulted in a lot of tears and shouting on her part, while Lila remained composed and sweet. Adrien had decided to let go of the one truth he shared with Marinette; after all it would only cause more harm then good.

In any case, Lila had proven to been as sweet and kind as Marinette had been, so he didn't see any reason to chastise her for her past behaviours. Any who, Ladybug hadn't been seen in Paris for at least five months now, and Adrien speculated that perhaps she was somehow a friend of Marinette's, and wanted to take time off.

Despite all of this, Marinette seemed relatively unphased. If anything, her and Felix looked close.

"I think I know where they met," Adrien said, and his friends looked to him,

"This summer, my dad told me that Felix was going to be doing some shooting in England for a campaign. It was this fashion-y course, so maybe Marinette went on that too."

"Probably," Alya said, and Lila broke her silence,

"Well its great that Marinette came here with a friend, even if she never exactly warmed to me. Maybe we can show Felix that we also want to be friends with him," she said decidedly, but Nino looked unsure,

"I don't know, Lila dude. He brushed you off pretty hard this morning and Adrien, didn't you say he was kinda cold?"

"That's one word for it," Adrien sighed. He wondered how someone as sweet and soft as Marinette (had been) could possibly get along with someone like his stoic cousin.

The eyes of his friends followed his, and they looked over at the pair.

Marinette was cackling with laughter in front of a smirking Felix who stood, leaning against the courtyard wall.

"Their faces," the girl finally breathed from her laughing attack. Felix also couldn't contain his smile,

"You sure know how to act, Dupain-Cheng, I'll give you that."

"Yeah well, it will give them something else to talk about," she rolled her eyes.

Alya frowned, "I am shell-shocked. I cant believe she would even show her face back here and now-"

"Babe, don't think too much into it," Nino soothed his girlfriend.

"Well, can you blame them? Do you think they ever expected to see you here again after what happened with Lie-la?"

Marinette shrugged, and turned to slouch against the wall beside him, folding her arms. Felix didn't even have to enunciate the word differently and she still knew what he meant. 

"You, uh, you doing okay though?" Felix changed demeanour, "It can't have been easy to go in their and see her in your place."

"You think I didn't have to live with that anyway?" Marinette scoffed. She caught Adrien and Alya looking at her across the way. She glanced over either shoulder as if to ask if their was anyone they were looking at behind her, and they quickly looked away.

"Yeah... It just looks like they wiped you out completely," Felix grimaced and Marinette looked up at him. Surprisingly, however, she smiled.

"Good," she said, shrugging, "I had a chance to change my attitude over the summer, and that's what I did."

Felix's smirk was back once more, "S'not the only thing you changed," he said, pointing to her attire and twisting a strand of her short hair, "Don't think I didn't notice the guys throwing you looks when we walked in. I might just have to get you a collar, Nette."

Marinette scoffed, thumping his arm. He chuckled and slung his arm around her, and they walked away.

"So, you gonna unravel the ball of string yet?" Felix murmured to her softly, as they passed their gawking classmates.

"Yeah..." Marinette smiled, "And I know just how to start."

"The reveal?" he questioned.

"The reveal," she smiled back at him. She reached up to give him a peck on the lips, before they strolled down the hallway.

"Wonder what they're so smug about?" Kim grumbled, joining the group at the bench, and Lila simply bit her lip,

"I'm not sure Kimmy. I'm not sure."


	2. how are we doing this?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day back at Dupont crawls to an end, and Marinette and Felix serve their first helping of the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyyY~~ i'm back?
> 
> im really sorry that i havent updated this in well 3 months now... but i have some valid ish excuses!
> 
> 1\. i had a bunch of school work to finish up for the summer and that took up a lot of my time.  
> 2\. i have relatively 0 (aka very little) interest in miraculous anymore (i stopped a few eps into s3) but i still read fics  
> 3\. procrastination is a real thing people! lol
> 
> any who i hope you can forgive me. although i dont care much for the show anymore, i will attempt to finish this story in a reasonable time frame. but its me, so who knows!
> 
> as for my other two miraculous works, we'll have to see.
> 
> thanks to anyone who is still reading, i love ya for it!

By the time lunch had rolled around, the hype surrounding Marinette and Felix had died down considerably. Her old friends kept sneaking her side-ways glances throughout the day. At first it was satisfying to see them squirm, shocked that they hadn't managed to crack her the first time. Then it became unnerving, seeing eyes darting back and forth as she tried to talk to Felix. And, by the time the lunch bell had sounded, Marinette was well and truly pissed off.

"Okay this is really getting on my tits now," Marinette scowled, sticking her fork aggressively into her pasta, causing the sixiemes in the table nearby to blink in fear. She just rolled her eyes at them and looked to Felix for support.

"Whaddya mean?" the blonde questioned, wrinkling his nose as a wilted piece of broccoli before sticking it in his mouth, "I thought this is what you wanted."

"What I wanted," she drawled, "Was to put Lila in her place. Not end up like an exhibit at the zoo."

Felix chuckled and took her right cheek between his fingers, a move that he knew was certain to get her smiling. Instead, she gave him a dead stare. He chuckled weakily,

"Listen, Ange. You want to get this shit rolling? Well then let's get going? What are we waiting for?" he gestured over his shoulder to where their other classmates sat.

They all sat together, engrossed in conversation. It was obvious that Lila was recounting a glorious, fabricated tale of her Parisian stardom, as the others could literally not look any more enamoured than they already did.

"Because," Marinette said, "I've waited too long for this. It's got to be absolutely perfect."

"I like it," he said leaning forward and bracing his chin on his hands, "So what are we gonna do?"

"Well," she sighed, "The main piece of leverage I have against Lila is pretty big. I don't know if I trust that she doesn't have eyes and ears everywhere."

She used her head to gesture back to the sixieme behind Felix, who quickly turned away, flushed at that.

"Anyway," Marinette rolled her eyes, "Wanna come by over school? I'll tell you all about it."

"Wicked," he smirked.

She smiled back at him, "Come on, Love. We've got a lesson to get to."

After lunch, Marinette and her companion headed to the Art studio for art class. Although some like Max, Kim and Sabrina had chosen to drop it in favour of another elective, the majority of the class still chose to explore their creativity in the bright room. Marinette and Felix entered the room, finding Monsieur Theve cleaning brushes by the sink.

"Monsieur!" Marinette called, and the man spun around in surprise.

"Marinette?! What are you doing here?" the teacher lit up, jogging over to greet the girl.

"I came back," she shrugged, feeling a genuine smile emerging for the first time that afternoon.

"That's brilliant," he smiled warmly, "And it's nice to meet you Felix. I hope you share some of Marinette's creativity."

"Couldn't be anywhere close to her's if I tried sir," he quipped slyly and Marinette elbowed him.

The bell sounded, and others began to file in. They spared glances at Marinette before taking to their stations around the room. Alix swallowed hard. She watched Marinette talking to their teacher, probably explaining how her summer courses had gone. She wanted to ask, but thought better of it. It wasn't like the girl would want to hear from her anyway. So instead, she grabbed her face mask, and studied her stencils in silence.

Since the media teacher had been on leave, Alya and Nino joined the class and sat nearby to where Lila was in the centre of the room. The Italian girl cracked her knuckles, before drawing out a sketch pad and pencils. They were the finest Graf Von Faber pencils money could buy, or so the man at the dodgy stationary outlet had said. She tapped her fingers lightly on the desk, eyes darting around the room. Surely enough, she saw Marinette and Felix together. Marinette was making some sort of jacket, with Felix haphazardly modelling a shirt collar for her as he painted. The two laughed together.

Lila frowned. Marinette's talent had truly flourished during her time away. The garment looked polished and refined; as if it had been purchased from a boutique in the nicer districts of Paris. Her brows creased. The girl was back. The girl that she had worked so hard to drive out, to ruin, and to make miserable. Never had one of her projects gone so swimmingly, only to have fallen at the last hurdle. How the girl even knew about her lies, she wasn't sure. But if she was going to see this through, she needed to work. 

Fast.

She blinked, light bulbs flashing in her mind. She quickly turned to an earlier page in her sketch pad, erasing a small doodle that she'd abandoned. Glancing up quickly, she began to scrawl out an image of the jacket Marinette was working on. She huffed to herself, trying to get it as neat as she could. Once she had finished, she smiled contentedly. She hummed sweetly as she scrawled her name across the top of the page, and even paused to add some notes of what fabrics to use for good measure. Then, she took her new evidence, slipped it into her book and waltzed over to Rose.

"Hey Rosie," she beamed, making the other girl look up, "My shoulder was playing up again, and I was wondering if you could help me roll it?"

"Of course," the other smiled, springing from her seat to help her. She gently took Lila's arm and began to help her 'adjust her arm.' 

"Oh yes, that's the spot," Lila bit out, trying her hardest not to sound impatient as the piece of paper edged ever closer to falling from the sketch pad.

"Careful Lila," Rose added, "You might want to set that down while I do this. Wouldn't want you to drop your amazing sketches!" she chirped.

Wouldn't we? Lila smirked to herself.

Rose rolled Lila's arm and the book slipped from the girl's grip, loosening the sketch as it fluttered to the ground. The paper sauntered across the floor, landing perfectly at Felix's feet. This is too easy, the brunette smirked, before letting out a gasp.

"I'm sorry Lila! I should've waited until you put it down," Rose said apologetically, darting to pick up the girl's work. As she did, she noticed the sketch beside it, and picked it up. She frowned, eyes darting across the page. Then she paused. Then she looked up at Marinette and Felix, talking and laughing as she worked on finishing the cuffs on a jacket. The same jacket. The girl's face scrunched up, and she walked closer to the pair.

"Hello?" Felix asked, spinning around as he heard the blonde approach, making the girl flinch. She shook her head to steady herself before speaking,

"That's an interesting jacket you're working on Marinette."

"Mmhm," Marinette murmured, ignoring the question as she threaded a needle.

Rose felt her lip quiver. In her heart of hearts, she really didn't want to do this to the girl. But she couldn't stand it.

"How could you? On your first day back!" she scolded, holding up the sketch, "You come back for one day and already your stealing Lila's ideas!"

Marinette straightened up at this, turning slowly to face Rose. Her face was blank, and Felix was equally unimpressed.

"Wait, Marinette is this true?" Lila asked.

By now the whole class was looking at them, all with concerned faces. Alya went over to them, examining both the jacket and the sketch. Her face creased with concern, looking at Marinette in disbelief.

"Are you serious Marinette?" the Alya errupted, "Lila has really tried to convince me that you have changed but this... This is insane. You know how important your design are to you! Why would you rip off someone else's?"

Lila mentally chuckled at that. One of her greater feats had been dumping one of Marinette's thinner design books into the Seine last year. One of her prouder moments, remembering how she'd managed to cover herself with a chiropractor's appointment. She always prided herself on managing to be in two places at once...

She decided, however, it was time to step in. Marinette had been looking awfully too comfortable to be back here, so she needed to play this out,

"Oh Alya don't be too harsh on her. I'm sure Marinette didn't know what she was doing," the girl layed on.

"It has your signature at the top," Rose retorted, looking sad. The three girls looked back over to Marinette and Felix, but found them sitting on the edge of laughter. Felix kept glancing at the girl, and she kept hissing 'stop or I will', entirely shifting the mood of the conversation. Noticing the appalled look of her ex-friends, Marinette turned to face them. Faking mean messages from Marinette may have been easy, as was sneaking into her locker to trash her work under the cover of needing time to rest her back, but if there was one thing Lila would not one-up Marinette on, it was fashion.

"Well?!" Alya said impatiently, and Marinette met her with steady eye contact.

"Damn I did'nt want to have to do this son soon... But oh well. Alya, how long does it take me to make a jacket?" she asked cooly, Felix stretching beside her to rest right next to her; making Alya look both of them in the eyes.

"I don't see how that has to do with the-"

And the ball was rolling.

"No it's okay, take your time," Marinette smiled, "But, if it helps I'll do the math."

Marinette looked over at Lila. She was impresses that she'd gone to this extent. Never had she done something as blatant and bold as this before. In her younger years, she would've stayed quiet, said she had no idea how that happened and let the angry comments wash over her.

Old Marinette had lost her fight. But new Marinette? New Marinette was fearless.

Like clockwork, she spun to fully face the crowd gathering behind her,

"Sketching a design usually takes me between two and fifteen minutes, depending on how inspired I am. Fabric and outsourcing of materials can takes months; but it's usually a few weeks since I know a guy," she said cheekily, receiving confused glances from the others. Felix just bit his tongue exciting. Shit. Was. Going. Down.

"Then, it takes me a month to put it together. You should know Alya, you spent a lot of time at my house," she said pointedly.

"W-what has this got to do with anything?" Alya finally burst, gaining the attention of the others in the room. Their teacher cast them a worried glance, but turned back to his easel within moments.

"Well then the last step is to embroider my logo into the inner seam of the garment," Marinette shrugged, leaning back in her seat, crossing her arms, "And see, I don't usually add anything else, but because I came up with this concept while at fashion camp this summer. So, I decided to also add in the logo for the camp to. A reminder, if you will."

Cocked heads and confused faces turned towards the jacket. Marinette sighed, clearly she was going to have to be more explicit.

"So if I started this while I was in England last month, great time by the way, then how could I have stolen 'Lila's' sketch?"

She then shrugged the garment off of the mannequin beside her, flipping it to reveal the small embroidered patch that read the name of her summer fashion course. She then smiled at the group simply. Then switched,

"Oh and if that doesn't convince you," she said, reaching into her bag, "Then here's my summer sketch book with - oh the date's there- the original concepts, and err the final design."

The group stared at each other, flabbergasted by the situation unfolding before them. Lila? Well Lila was reeling. She was sure to mask her internally volcanic rage in fear of giving Marinette any satisfaction. The bluenette shrugged and glanced towards Felix, who was practically on the edge of happy tears.

"Oh!" he exclaimed suddenly, thinking 'screw it! why not add more fuel to the flames?'," I have this wicked pic of me wearing it when it before the sleeves. Should'a kept it as a vest but that's just my opinion."

He held up the phone in front of the others, and surely enough was a picture of Felix in the jacket (minus sleeves), taken by an old building in the English countryside. Dated from the 27th of July, exactly a month before they returned to school.

The group were shell-shocked. Rose and Alya were clearly trying to formulate an excuse, but had nothing. Lila was also silent. That was until the sonorous rattle of the school bell rang out, and Marinette and Felix promptly gathered their resources and left. They waved to their teacher, before exiting the class.

Lila swallowed a sour taste in her mouth, before jolting out of her stupor. She turned to her subjects before quickly shouting out towards the door,

"Keep away from my private Instagram account where I post my drawings Marinette!" she felt proud of her save. The others visibly eased at the revelation, with Rose chiming in,

"Of course!" the girl squeaked, "I forgot that you told me about that account Lila."

Lila sighed, "I accepted her thinking that maybe she'd changed, but archived all the post and deleted them later when I realised what she could've been doing."

"Rightfully so!" Alya said, "God I can't believe for a minute that I'd thought she'd changed."

"Amen," Rose pouted, "How about we go for ice cream with the boys to cheer us up?"

"Sounds like a plan, ladies. Thanks for having my back," Lila simpered, linking arms with the girls and dragging them out as others followed.

"You saw all of that too, right?" Alix burst out, feeling it was a safe space to vent in front of Ivan, Mylene and their teacher.

"Yeah," Ivan said sheepishly, "To be honest, Marinette's story seemed pretty believable." Mylene nodded in agreement.

"SEEMED?" Alix exclaimed, "You can't seriously doubt any of that evidence. I can't believe it." Alix rubbed her face. But she could. She always had. She just chose to ignore it.

"Whatever the case is Alix," Mylene chimed in softly, holding her boyfriend's arm, "Marinette has changed a lot. Maybe it's for the best that we keep our distance. That Felix sure gives me the creeps!"

Ivan nodded in solitude, and the two walked out. Alix sighed and rubbed her face. She'd deal with it tomorrow.

Felix cackled with laughter as he ran and face planted on Marinette's chaise. Marinette rolled her eyes good natured-ly, before dumping her bag and walking over to him. She sat beside him, letting him place his head in her lap as he looked up at her,

"That was so fucking good," he said, "I can't believe that bitch's face when you came out with all of that."

"Yeah well I have it in me," Marinette said knowingly.

The blonde hummed happily, looking up at her, "I never doubted you. It was just satisfying to see her frozen like that."

"Mmhm," Marinette sighed, reaching past the boy to wrench her shoes off of her feet. Her sudden change in demeanour caused Felix's grin to fall. He stretched up off of her lap, sitting beside her. He bit his lip before asking,

"You good?"

Marinette exhaled, placing her shoes on the floor. She turned to him, lips pressed, before shaking her head.

"Wanna talk about it?" he asked gently, and Marinette nodded slowly. She stood up from the chaise, taking his hand in hers and leading him up to her bunk. Felix wrangled off his shoes before following the smaller girl up the ladder to her bed. They climbed beneath her sheets. She peered at Felix for a moment, considering, before nestling herself in his arms and hiding her face in his chest. By this point his smile had completely gone, replaced by a look of worry. He wrapped his arms firmly around her waist and pressed a kiss into her hair,

"What's going on, love? You were so happy before," he murmured softly.

A moment passed before, "You saw them afterwards. She recovered from it. They believed her again," the girl grumbled quietly, "I'm just so tired of it, you know?"

Felix hummed, before pulling her onto his chest so she was looking at him. She was still pouting, but no tears came. Marinette had given up crying over people that weren't worth it long ago now...

"Listen, that was only the first try," Felix said, hugging his arms around her middle as she propped herself up to rest over him, "You knew going into this that they weren't going to easily accept it all."

"I know, I know," Marinette sighed, "They're all so blind I just want to clear my name."

"And we will," Felix said, smiling again, "Now, where's that fire I saw this afternoon? Come on," he coaxed.

She snorted at his antics, reaching to cup his face with her hands, "How did I get stuck with you?" she smirked, causing Felix to scoff, 

"You mean how did you get so lucky?" he fought back, making her laugh. 

"God you're insufferable... But, you're right though," she said, "It took me long enough to get to where I am. I am not falling back into old pushover Marinette territory again." 

Felix laughed, propping himself up higher so he could meet her face to face, "That's what we like to here. So the first attempt might have fallen flat, we've got plenty more where that came from." 

The bluenette grinned, hugging onto her boyfriend as he continued, "Though I have to wonder why you didn't do anything earlier ange." 

Her grin turned to a soft eye roll after that. "I was hanging on to them by a thread the first time I told them she was lying. You think they would've kept me around if I kept on after that. I was desperate." 

"Desperate for anyone but me? That's impossible," the blonde smirked. Marinette rolled her eyes again, wondering if her eyes would ever come out of her head from all her annoyances. 

"But you've got me now," Felix smiled with hooded eyes, hand cautiously dragging up her outer thigh beneath the edge of her short skirt. To this the small girl scoffed, batting his arm away, leaving them both in a fit of laughter. 

"Not without a kiss you don't," she grinned, reaching over to capture Felix's lips with her own. 

Until her trapdoor opened. 

"Marinette?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sixièmes: the equlivalent to year 7 in uk secondary school/ or sixth grade in us? idk man just 11'year olds lmao
> 
> sooo cliffhanger~~ who do yall think it is? ;)
> 
> this story's anthems so far include:  
> WHY U MAD - BLVC SVND  
> Bang Bang - K'naan and Adam Levigne
> 
> next time: mystery guests, parental support and miraculous dramaa!


End file.
